Diptych of crucifixion and Madonna and Child

This little painted panel is among the oldest things in the whole gallery. It was made around 1250, in Lucca, a good half-century before Giotto began changing how figures were painted in Italy. At that moment Tuscan painters still worked in the manner they had learned from Byzantine icons: gold ground, long solemn faces, gestures fixed by tradition rather than observed from life. Bonaventura Berlinghieri belonged to a family workshop in Lucca that was among the best at this. The two hinged wings could be folded shut and carried, so this was a portable altar. It came from the convent of Santa Chiara in Lucca, where the nuns prayed in front of it. One side shows the Madonna and Child with saints, the other the Crucifixion, the two images a worshipper needed most.